Heat oil in heavy sauce or stew pan. Add spice paste and fry over low heat for 2 minutes or until fragrant.

Add beef cubes and continue to sauté until meat changes color.

Add lemon grass, salam leaves, and galangal and sauté for two more minutes.

Add 1 cup of the stock, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer until meat is 90% cooked. Continue to add more stock as it evaporates.

Add coconut milk, bring back to boil and simmer until meat is tender and sauce thickens. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Garnish with fried shallots.

Important points to successfully prepare a stew:

Always use a proper stew pan which has to be shallow and wide open

Use only secondary cuts from the forequarter of animals. Shoulder, brisket, neck are ideal.

Keep liquid as short as possible, and when adding liquid only cover meat by half. Then reduce until sauce thickens, fill up again with stock by half and repeat this process until meat is tender. This process is called glazing, and as the expression says, when the dish is done it must appear very shiny.

For small pieces of meat cut do not cover pan.

Just as our grand mother used to do, never cook a stew from start to finish in one go. Put pre-cook the stew in the morning, then allow to rest during the day. Warm up in the evening and finish the stew just before serving.

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2. Pork in Sweet Soya Sauce - Be Celeng Base Manis

Next to chickens, pigs are the most common house yard animals in Bali. They fit into a perfect ecological and economical niche because they eat left over or cheap or free plant materials that would otherwise go to waste, such as rice bran, banana stem, and rotten vegetables from the village market. They are contend to live out their lives tied up in a convenient, out of the way place in the house compound, and they require little attention other then considerable food. Furthermore, there is a ready demand for pigs because Balinese people dearly love to eat them in the form universally known in Bali as guling, meaning be guling, pork meat.

Add pork and ginger; continue to sauté for 2 more minutes over medium heat. Add sweet and salty soya sauce and crushed black pepper; continue to sauté for 1 more minute.

Pour in the chicken stock, add chilies and bring to simmer. Skim of scum.

Pressure cook at a gauge pressure of 1 bar /15 psi for 25 minutes. Start timing when full pressure is reached

Let the cooker cool for 20 minutes.

Lift the meat from the cooking liquid with a slotted spoon, and transfer to a frying pan.

Strain the liquid into a pot; bring to simmer and skim off as much fat as possible.

Transfer 250 ml (1 cup) of the cooking liquid to the pan with the pork , and simmer over medium heat, gently turning and basting the meat until it is glazed, 12-15 minute. Reduce the remaining liquide by ½ and add to the meat. Mix well and simmer for two more minutes over low heat.

Remove from the heat, and let the mixture infuse for 7-10 minutes.

Season to taste with crushed black pepper.

Note:

If pork is not your favorite choice of meat then replace with chicken using either leg bone and skinless cut in even cubes, or wings and legs with the bone in.

Keep liquid to an absolute minimum and do not cover the saucepan during the cooking process. This will guarantee a lovely dark brown stew with a shiny sauce.

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Sumatran Lamb Curry - Gulai Kambing

Ingredients:

1.2 kg Lamb shoulder cut into 2.5cm cubes and brined for 5 hours

4 tbsp Tamarind water

10 cm Cinnamon stick

1 Turmeric leaf thorn

1 stalk Lemongrass bruised

2 Lime leaves thorn

2 Salam leaves

250 ml Coconut cream

750 ml Chicken stock

Spice paste fresh:

4 tbsp Coconut oil

60 g Shallots peeled and sliced

30 g Garlic peeled and sliced

4-6 Bird’s eye chilies sliced

30 g Ginger peeled and sliced

30 g Galangal peeled and sliced

30 g Turmeric peeled and sliced

Spice paste dry:

1 tsp Coriander seeds roasted and crushed

½ tsp Cardamom peeled and crushed

½ tsp Caraway seeds crushed

¼ tsp Nutmeg ground

3 Stare anise

½ tsp White peppercorns crushed

Preparation:

For the fresh spice paste combine all ingredients except the oil and the tamarind water in stone mortar or food processor and grind into a fine paste.

For the dry spice paste combine all ingredients in a different stone mortar or food processor and grind very fine.

Heat oil in heavy sauce pan, add both spice blends, and cinnamon stick and sauté over medium heat until spices are fragrant and color changes.

Fill up with stock; add turmeric leaf, lemongrass, Salam and lime leaves and bring to simmer. Reduce heat and simmer for five minutes.

Pressure cook at a gauge pressure of 1 bar /15 psi for 25 minutes. Start timing when full pressure is reached

Let the cooker cool for 20 minutes.

Lift the meat from the cooking liquid with a slotted spoon, and transfer to a frying pan.

Strain the liquid into a pot; bring to simmer and skim off as much fat as possible.

Add coconut cream and bring sauce back to a slow boil to simmer until the sauce is lightly creamy

Transfer sauce to the pan with the lamb, mix well and simmer over medium heat, gently turning and basting the meat until it is glazed, 12-15 minute and the dish turns lightly creamy.

Remove pan from the heat, and let the mixture infuse for 7-10 minutes.

Season to taste with crushed white pepper.

Note:

If you wish to prepare a Gulai from chicken, beef, fish or vegetables, follow step 1,2,3, and 4. Then in step 5 simply replace with the protein of your choice or your chosen vegetables. For fish add more ginger and tamarind and less dry spices when preparing the spice blend. Cooking time for beef shoulder in a pressure cooker would be 1 hour and 15 minutes. As for chicken, fish or prawns vacuum cook in a water bathe as described on page…..

Add ox tongue, bring back to boil and simmer over very low for approximately three hours or until tongue is cooked and very tender. To check doneness insert wooden sate skewer into the middle of the tongue. This skewer must easily slide of the tongue when removed.

Remove cooked tongue from stock pot and plunge into ice water and cool.

Peel skin off, if necessary with the help of a sharp knife.

Slice tongue into thin, even slices.

Strain stock into another sauce pan, and reduce down until ½ liter remains.

Add sweet soy sauce and potatoes. Bring back to boil and simmer until potatoes are ¾ cooked.

Add ox tongue and bring back to boil and simmer until potatoes are soft and sauce has reduced to a lightly silky consistency. Season to taste with salt and crushed black pepper

Garnish with fried shallots, and drizzle with a few drops of lime juice.

Note:

A much faster way to cook the ox toungue would be in a pressure cooker. Place tongues into pressure cooker, cover with stock and add spice paste, salam leaves, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, nutmeg and sweet soy sauce. Cook at full pressure for aproxmiately 90 minutes. Since we cook the tongue this way it is no longer essential to plunge cooked tongues into ice water, as the skin virtually falls of the meat. All other steps remain the same.

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6. Grilled Pork Ribs - Balung Panggang

We are so fortunate here in Bali to have daily access to very high quality pork meat that comes from very happy pigs. We also have our very own personal butcher that prepares each and every cut to our personal needs and specifications. Therefore the ribs we serve daily in our restaurants are so meaty and juices that one often wonders where the actual bone has gone. . Perhaps migrated to the west??? This is in fast contrast to many Western meat sellers where one wonders why the bones or so dominant on ribs and where has all this delicious meat gone. This pour pigs must be starving!!!!

Ingredients:

1.2 kg Pork ribs cut in 3×3 cm pieces. Brined for 24 hours (page….)

4 tbsp Vegetable or coconut oil

600 ml Chicken or pork stock

Fried shallots to garnish

Spice blend:

50 g Large red chili halved, seeded and sliced

3-5 Bird’s eye chilies sliced

50 g Shallot, peeled and sliced

30 g Garlic, peeled and sliced

25 g Laos (galangal) peeled and chopped

25 g Ginger, peeled and sliced

25 g Kencur (lesser galangal), washed, sliced

35 g Turmeric, peeled and sliced

20 g Candlenut crushed

½ tsp Dried shrimp paste, (terasi) roasted

½ tsp Coriander seed crushed

¼ tsp Black pepper corn crushed

¼ tsp Nutmeg, freshly grated

2 Cloves crushed

2 stalk Lemon grass bruised

2 Kaffir lime leaves bruised

1 Salam leaves

2 tbsp. Coconut or vegetable oil

50 ml Water

1 pinch Salt to taste

Preparation:

For the spice blend combine all ingredients except the oil, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, and water in a stone mortar or food processor and grind into a fine paste.

Place ground ingredients in a pressure cooked, add remaining ingredients and sauté over medium heat until spice blend is fragrant and golden shiny in color. (Reserve 100 g. of spice blend for the basting oil)

We have taken here a slightly different approach and found a way to cook each and every piece of the pork to perfection and at the same time made certain to maintain the traditional flavors of Bali. In this recipe we cut the whole pig into different parts, head, shoulder, belly, and the back legs. Next we brined the pork for 24 hours and then roasted the various parts at relatively low temperature.(120ºC) You still can cook the parts at the same time but now you require the assistance of a probe. Starting with the smallest or thinnest cut and once you reach a core temperature of 65ºC take this cut from the oven and allow to rest on a wire rack in a warm place. Next you insert your probe in to the next larger piece of roast and when 65ºC core temperature is reached remove this piece from the oven is well. Continue the same way until each cut has reached the 65ºC mark. Once roasted allow the meat to rest in a warm spot for approximately one hour. Then 15-20 minutes before serving the pork return the meat into a very hot oven and by the time you serve the roast the skin is so crispy which really is the key to a great Babi Guling. If you desire a slightly smoky flavor then smoke the meat first before roasting.

Ingredients:

2 kg Pork boneless with skin on from a small about 25 kg piglet.Brined for 24 hours

For the spice blend combine all other ingredients, and mix thoroughly.

Place a banana leaves on a perforated square tray or wire rack, top with spice blend and place pork on top (skin up). Place tray on top of a second tray that contains water. While roasting this will create a little humidity in the oven preventing the roast from drying out.

Roast at low temperature (the lower the better, but this will take longer) to a core temperature of 65ºC. Brush frequently with turmeric oil.

Allow roast to rest at a warm place for 1 hour.

Heat oven to 300ºC or even better if you can go higher. Then 15-20 minutes before serving return roast back into the oven and sear the skin. Within minutes this will give you the desired crispy skin.

When serving, first remove the crisp skin with a carving knife or scissor and cut into even pieces. Slice roast evenly.

Place spice blend on serving plate, and then top with meat and skin.

Babi Guling in Bali:

Guides and tourist almost always refer to this typically Balinese dish as Babi Guling and translate it as “roast suckling pig”. The name and the translation are not really correct. First of all Babi is the common Bahasa Indonesia word, not the common Balinese word, for pig. The corresponding common Balinese word is Celeng but it is never used with respect to this dish. There is a word Babi in Balinese that means “Pig”, but it is the high Balinese term and is never used in ordinary conversation. Second, the pigs that are roasted are always well past the suckling stage of development. Balinese people always refer to this dish with that all purpose word, Be, meaning meat. The adjective guling, is best translated into English as “rotated”, or, in this case of cooking, “rotisserie”. Basically this dish is simply a cleaned and de-gutted pig stuffed with spices and impaled upon a spit. It is roasted over coals or a low fire by rotating the spit by hand, often a procedure of several hours duration. Technically the word guling all by it self refers to anything that is roasted in a rotisserie.

It should be mentioned that average Balinese people very seldom cook or eat pork at home, except upon ceremonial occasions. Pigs are large animals, and it would not be practically or economically feasible for a family to slaughter the pigs that it raises for home consumption.

It is a fact that most people on Bali which enjoy pork love to eat every now and then this delicate roast. However due to the fact that a whole pig fare exceeds the hunger of an ordinary family this dish would be just as in Bali be prepared only during very special occasion such as birthdays, anniversaries or reunions. Another fact is when roasting a whole pig on a spit, certain parts like the legs or the shoulder will take a lot longer to roast then a bell, and as a result some parts can be rather over cooked while the other are juicy and delicious. This does not need to be so.

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8. Braised Lamb Shanks with Mushrooms - Kaki Kambing – Bali

Ingredients:

4 Lamb shanks bone in whole trimmed

@ 400-450 g each

3 tbsp Vegetable or coconut oil

250 g Spice blend for meats (page…)

1 tbsp Cardamom seeds crushed

10 Cloves crushed

2 Cinnamon sticks @ 10 cm each

3 stalks Lemon grass bruised

3 Kafir lime leaves bruised

500 ml Chicken stock

250 ml Coconut cream

Salt to taste

100 g Shitake mushrooms cleaned

Garnish:

25 g Celery leaves sliced

50 g Halved, seeded and diced tomatoes

2 tbsp Fried shallots

50 g Krupuk Emping deep fried

1 Lime cut in wedges

3 tbsp Sambal Nasi Goreng

Preparation:

Marinate shanks evenly with 4 table spoon of spice blend.

Heat 4 table spoon of oil in frying pan and evenly brown shanks on all sides. Remove shanks from pan and drain ¾ of the oil.

Fill up with stock and bring to a simmer. Transfer liquid to a pressure cooker, add lamb shanks and bring back to simmer. Skim of scum.

Pressure cook at a gage pressure of 1 bar / 15 psi for 30 minutes. Start timing once full pressure is reached.

Turn of the heat and allow the cooker to cool for 20 minutes.

Bring the remaining liquid to simmer and skim off as much fat and scum as possible. Reduce liquid by half.

Add coconut cream, bring back to a boil and simmer for three minutes.

In separate sauce pan quickly sauté mushrooms in two table spoon of oil. Strain sauce over mushrooms, add lamb shanks and simmer over medium low heat until shanks are glazed and sauce is lightly creamy, 12-15 minutes. Remove from the heat, and let mixture infuse for 7-10 minutes.

With a hand blender quickly foam up sauce without blending the mushrooms.

Season sauce to taste with salt, 2 table spoon of lime juice and lime zest.

Garnish dish with celery leaves, diced tomatoes and fried shallots.

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TREKKING ADVENTURES

On IndoVolcano.com we present a collection of stories from our never-ending desire to reach every mountaintop in Indonesia that is over 2000 meters. Every journey to these peaks leads us into different parts and regions of Indonesia which offer completely unique cultural aspects and traditions. Never would I leave home without bringing at least one camera to document these journeys visually, which resulted in thousands of great images from these rugged escapes.

BALINESE NIGHT MARKET

Built on the success of Bumbu Bali, Restaurant & Cooking School, we continue with our efforts to bring Balinese food another step closer to the interested gourmet travelers and to people who enjoy sampling the delightful flavors of another culture. Only a few hundred meters away from Bumbu Bali and within our very own Bed & Breakfast accommodation, Rumah Bali, we have crafted a market restaurant in a magnificent Balinese setting. Each building is designed following the principles of ancient Balinese architecture. Each pavilion represents a building one would find within a village community, including home compounds, temples, town meeting halls, gambling pavilions or areas where people simply get together and rest. Imagine sitting in the midst of a Balinese village market enjoying the best dishes our island has to offer, and at the same time being confident you are in a perfectly clean and safe environment and being thoroughly looked after by hospitality professionals.

MISSION STATEMENT

# 1 Bumbu Bali and Rumah Bali provide an unforgettable culinary and cultural experience by integrating the mystic style of Bali and its people with the finest produces of the island in a modern yet traditional contemporary setting.
# 2 We are recognized by our guests and competitors as the leading Balinese restaurants in Bali, serving specialties from all regions of the world’s largest archipelago, and the freshest available seafood in an innovative, modern and tasteful way.
# 3 Innovative, creative, value for money, and foremost very consistent in our service and products are some of our strongest points.
# 4 Our guests expectation are always exceeded due to our warm, caring, accommodating and professional staff who constantly provide genuine and consistent service.
# 5 We foster good relationships with the government and local authorities by promoting the culture and protecting the environment of Bali.
# 6 We always treat each other with genuine care and respect and commit ourselves to continue training and development. As a result, we see our home stay resort as a warm and positive working environment and consider ourselves a big happy family.